Valeria Stagno is a PhD candidate of the 35th cycle at the Department of Earth Sciences / Environment and Cultural Heritage curriculum of La Sapienza University of Rome. In 2019 she was the winner of the Torno Subito funding from the Lazio Region thanks to which she worked for six months as a trainee researcher at the University of Oulu in Finland, dealing with the diagnostics of wooden finds by using nuclear magnetic resonance. In the same year she carried out an internship at the magnetic resonance laboratory of the CNR-ISC in Rome. In 2018 she obtained the master's degree in Sciences applied to cultural heritage at La Sapienza University of Rome, after having carried out an internship at the magnetic resonance laboratory of the CNR-ISC.
Her current research activity aims at the implementation and validation of new non-destructive and non-invasive Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) protocols for the diagnostics of cultural heritage and the study of materials for their conservation.
She carries out her research activity using proton NMR techniques based on signal analysis and on the acquisition of high resolution images thanks to the use of two types of instruments: a portable instrument with low magnetic field (15MHz) and a non-portable instrument with high magnetic field (400MHz).
Specifically, she implements and optimizes ad-hoc RMN protocol for cultural heritage. She obtains physico-chemical and morphological information of the sample by analyzing NMR parameters, such as relaxation times and diffusion coefficient, and elaborates new models for the reconstruction of its characteristics. Furthermore, she carries out a direct microstructural characterization through the acquisition of high resolution images of the material under study.
In 2021 she obtained funding for a research project concerning the synthesis, NMR characterization and application of lignin nanoparticles as a potential consolidating material for wood.